Caltech is a world-renowned educational institution with a long history of fulfilling the needs of industries, governments and academia. Boeing is the world’s leading aerospace company, providing products and services to over 150 countries. In order to focus basic scientific research, Boeing has signed overarching, long-term research agreements with nine of the world’s top research universities in specific critical technology areas. For Caltech, this is “systems integration” technology. Caltech provides world-class leading edge research, technology and graduates, enabling the basis for advanced innovation leadership and allowing Boeing to benefit from a long-term relationship, access to the university research, as well as top students.

The Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) was established with a $500M funding commitment from BP Technology Ventures, Inc. (BP) to support alternative energy research over 10 years. Berkeley’s research partners in this multi-disciplinary industry/university/government initiative are the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The funding, through a grants-making process, has enabled >350 researchers across several departments to produce scores of research publications, is training talent for high-tech sector jobs, enhances university research facilities, has produced dozens of patents and IP agreements, is accelerating innovation and catalyzing commercial investment, and has engendered additional funding and collaborations.

This case study presents the events leading to the formation of a strategic alliance and a successful collaboration between a Land Grant University and a major corporation in the animal health arena, and represents a model that exemplifies an Industry-University relationship that respects the mission, goals and culture of each entity. Three components make this strategic alliance unique:

1. Different from most university/industry linkages, this does not involve the transfer of intellectual property [IP] or the establishment of a research relationship [with IP issues contractually resolved]. Rather, it involves the merging of Kansas State University (K-State) capabilities with industry growth needs. 2. The entrepreneurial enterprise at K-State involves not only the university, but a K-State controlled organization [K-State Institute for Commercialization – KSU-IC] which could negotiate the final package. 3. The strategic alliance was made possible by a three-way discussion between KSU-IC, several entrepreneurial investors in the animal health arena, and a company having the need to diversify. In January 2011, Abaxis, Inc. and K-State created a unique Industry-University alliance to form a new laboratory division called Abaxis Veterinary Reference Laboratory (AVRL). Previously, Abaxis had been a products oriented company, and was developing a strategic plan to expand its business to include diagnostic services, thus providing a broader offering to its clients. Abaxis needed a partner with expertise and credibility in veterinary diagnostic services. K-State had been exploring options for growing the companion animal portion of its animal disease diagnostic capabilities. K-State needed a partner to leverage its capabilities outside of the Midwest.

A new model for creating a relational, rather than transactional, University-Industry relationship is reviewed. The model focuses on having the University build a long-term strategic relationship with the industry collaborator across the inter-related areas of research, curriculum, internships and community engagement. This model has enabled a greater benefit to both the University and the Industry collaborator – such as new academic programs, joint research efforts, and a significant number of internship opportunities.

The International Food Safety Training Laboratory (IFSTL) is a partnership between the University of Maryland and the Waters Corporation. Signed in 2010, this alliance led to the creation of a training facility dedicated to analytical methods for food safety in microbiology and chemistry where subject-matter experts from the U.S. FDA, USDA, EPA and academics from the University collaboratively deliver hands-on training. This resource has benefited food laboratory professionals from many countries in its 18 months of operation and contributed significantly to the FDA's international capacity building plan aiming at strengthening laboratory capacity domestically and internationally to improve food safety globally. U.S. consumers have benefited since much of the food consumed in the U.S. is now imported, and improving food safety in other countries benefits U.S. market.

Suppose there existed a cyber-enabled design environment that enabled geographically dispersed engineering students and incumbent engineers to collaborate within in a common cloud-based Computer Aided Design (CAD) environment, and suppose further that these students have multidisciplinary domain expertise in various engineering and technical disciplines, working within competitive design teams to solve real-life “industry identified” problems. This scenario would provide an experiential opportunity for students to learn from subject matter experts and for industry to crowd-source its research challenges, while fostering relationships with the very students they seek to hire upon graduation. This capstone design class describes an emergent design environment and a radical new partnership model to “emergent engineering design” via cloud-based synchronous and asynchronous multi-user CAx tools, advanced design and manufacturing methods, and mentoring by practicing aerospace engineers.

The Nonwovens Institute (NWI) traces its history to 1991, when the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC) was established as a State-Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (State-I/UCRC). In 1998, upon the conclusion of NSF grant funding, NCRC continued to enhance its technology and research capabilities while growing its membership to become the most successful State-I/UCRC in the Nation. NWI was launched in 2007 as the world's first accredited academic inter-disciplinary program for engineered fabrics. NWI engages experts in building next-generation fiber-based applications while also providing training and guidance to the field's future leaders. NCRC now serves as NWI's fundamental research and discovery arm. The NWI is notable for its longevity and for transitioning from public funding to being supported almost entirely by private funds, with 98% of NWI's funding coming from private industry.

The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is the world’s largest consumer goods company, serving approximately 4.6 billion people and spending over $2 billion per year in Research and Development. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, P&G has chosen to work with the University of Cincinnati (UC) as a strategic academic partner to develop Modeling and Simulation capabilities for advancing product and process development. UC is classified as a Research University (Very High Research Activity) by the Carnegie Commission, and is ranked as one of America’s top 25 public research universities by the National Science Foundation. With specific expertise in structural mechanics and dynamics, computational fluid dynamics, and other modeling disciplines, P&G finds great value in working with UC’s faculty and students to deploy modeling and simulation capabilities across projects in R&D and Product Supply. This partnership is part of P&G’s Connect+Develop open innovation work, aimed at linking the most innovative minds in the world to the Company’s most challenging opportunities to accelerate innovation for consumers.

This academic-industrial partnership seeks to develop new scintillators at the University of Tennessee (UT) that will enhance the performance of medical imaging devices that are manufactured by Siemens Medical Solutions. Scintillators are crystalline materials that are used to detect radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays used in nuclear medical imaging. A multidisciplinary team of faculty and students in the UT College of Engineering works together with scientists at Siemens to discover and develop new materials technology aimed at providing a competitive business advantage for Siemens while simultaneously providing research topics for students.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in Cleveland, has initiated a multi-university project to test the potential of video analytics to improve the monitoring and control of passenger movements within an airport. A key programmatic innovation of the project is the development of a video testbed within a major US airport, which will tap into live camera feeds through a digital video overlay network. This testbed enables the TSA experts to provide frequent onsite feedback to the university research teams, shaping the research to meet their vision for next-generation security operations. Industrial partners are supporting the technology transition process and testbed design.

The University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP) operates as a semi-autonomous activity convened by the National Academies and its Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR). The views expressed in the case studies above are not necessarily those of the UIDP member institutions, National Academies or GUIRR. Responsibility for the content of these case studies rests entirely with the authors and the members of the UIDP.

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